It’s time for another AudioDraft artist interview, this time we managed to catch Phil Gemellas aka Man on the Run from Athens, Greece in our spotlight!

Hi Phil, you joined AudioDraft in February this year and you have already won one contest and two challenges. Congratulations for the tremendous success! Can you first tell us a little bit about your musical background? When did you start producing your own music?

From the age of 15 I started studying Electone (a two keyboard and pedal board organ-similar to Hammond) at the Yamaha Music Foundation. I continued by taking lessons in Classical and Jazz Piano/Improvisation, Harmony, Counterpoint, Brass/Big Band Arrangement and some Composition Masterclasses.

My first original composition in 2002, was for a documentary film about the Olympic Games. It was just a 20′ minutes film but next came the second and more extended version of the same project. Since then I have made music for a child’s theater play, some radio and T.V. Spots, a short movie soundtrack and working as an orchestrator and ghost-composer 😉 I have made several tracks for a lot of T.V. Series.

We noticed in your bio that your day job is a session musician / arranger. How long have you been working in the field of music?

After finishing my studies in Electone Mate Course I worked as a demonstrator for Yamaha and as a teacher at the Yamaha Music Foundation in Greece. Since 1995 I work all around as a session musician for Studio and Live gigs. I have worked also for the Greek National Television and I have made orchestrations in CD releases of other composers.

Your music has done very well in the game music challenges on AudioDraft. Do you play any games to learn about game music and sound design?

Well, I have been a gamer in the past but now for all the well known reasons it is impossible to keep on being a gamer. Instead, I prefer to watch the demo videos and read about Game Music and Game Audio in general.

Do you have a home recording studio where you work? We would also love to hear what kind of setup you use to do your work, can you please tell us a little bit about that?

As far as I am not a tech-expert I prefer to go to a professional studio and get help by a pro sound engineer. At home I use just my Korg Karma and Cubase SX-3 on my laptop. I consider myself more as a traditional musician than a producer or anything else so my hit point is the music itself rather than the sound quality of it which I leave to the experts. 🙂

How do you get the inspiration to work on a track?

Hard to say but I can tell that what I consider most of is which is the impression-the taste in other words-that a tune leaves to the listener after the first audition. This is what I am trying to “catch”. Then, the sound palette, the structure, the chord progression, tempo and key changes and even the melody have just to be the right ones for the purpose. Also, I am always looking for a “theme”, something memorable which can work and as a stand alone music without the need of the images sequence.

Do you have any producers, bands or musicians you would like to name as your key influencers? What’s the hottest thing in music in 2011?

The very first names which come in mind are Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Moriccone, Angelo Babalamenti, Lalo Schifrin, Tommy Tallarico, Chic Corea, Egberto Gismonti, Gabriel Yared, Phil Spector, Sting, Jean-Michel-Jarre, Vangelis.. and bands like Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Supertramp, Dream Theatre…and of course all the giants of the classical and jazz music…i certainly do not have so much space to refer to all of them.

And about the hottest thing in music in 2011… I think that we will know it in the future. There is so much music being produced nowadays that is really hard to discover and distinguish.

How is the weather in Athens, Greece?

The weather is fine, the sun is shining but it is the one and only thing that is shining right now… Let’s hope that it will not last forever.

Speak your mind, is there something you would like to say to the AudioDraft community? Do you have a web site where you promote your music?

AudioDraft community is great, there are a lot of excellent and talented composers/sound designers whose work I admire and I have already made some friends in there so…keep on jammin’ guys!!!

For the time I keep a blog. It is in Greek language, but I am currently working with some friends on a blog that will be published in English and I hope that it can be interesting for all of us. For promotion, i use to upload my tracks on SoundCloud for anybody who would like to listen to them. This works pretty well for me.

Thanks Philippe! Have a great Summer!

Thank you Tommi and all you guys in the AudioDraft team keep on the good work… and have a nice summer!